Mobile terminated (MT) call setup time is a key performance indicator in wireless networks. It has a direct effect on the user's experience regardless of any service offered by the network. Mobile terminated call setup time has a substantial impact on the overall revenue generated by the network as well as the churn rate. In cellular wireless networks, when the user equipment (UE) is idle, it wakes up at regular time intervals in order to check paging and read system information broadcast by the network. Current formats of wireless communication systems include the third generation (3G) systems which provide greater capacity and more broadband wireless capabilities than the previous 2G systems. The 3G systems include a Common Control Channel that broadcast system information from the wireless network to the UEs. One emerging 3G system is Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS). In UMTS, there are several Common Control Channels. For example, there are different information blocks on the Primary Common Control Physical Channel (P-CCPCH) in UMTS, categorized into Master Information Blocks (MIBs) and System Information Blocks (SIBs).
For example, each SIB carries a particular type of network information, such as but not limited to, Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) info, DRX cycle coefficient (SIB1), thresholds for cell reselection (SIB3), current uplink interference level (SIB7), paging frequency, timers, etc. The broadcast scheduling of these system information blocks is contained in the master information block (MIB) which is broadcasted in regular, pre-determined time intervals. MIB contains the exact repetition count, number of segments and system frame number for each of the SIBs broadcasted. One of the SIBs is SIB7 which carries the up-to-date uplink interference level perceived by the base station receiver. Each UE needs to read SIB7 of the camping cell before establishing a connection with the network. The SIB7 information contains the uplink interference level which is used in the open loop power control calculation to determine the appropriate transmit power level for random access. Additionally, the UE decodes its paging block in order to determine if the UE is being paged by the network. In some instances, reading the SIB7 and being paged by the network can occur simultaneously or near simultaneously.
The paging block is broadcast through the Secondary Common Control Physical Channel (S-CCPCH). Typically, the decoding of the paging block (on S-CCPCH) has higher priority over the decoding of SIBs (on P-CCPCH). When the UE is being paged, it cannot immediately initiate a connection with the network to respond to the page until the UE has received the next occurrence of broadcasted SIB7. As a result, there is a necessary waiting time between the receipt of the page and connection request initiation with the network. The waiting time can vary among different UEs, some waiting time being longer than desirable to ensure good user experience.